No. 8 North Dakota downs Ohio St.

Women's Ice Hockey

No. 8 North Dakota downs Ohio St.

COLUMBUS, OHIO --- The University of North Dakota played in another thriller against Ohio State tonight at the Ohio State Ice Rink in Columbus, Ohio, but this was settled in regulation for the first time all season as the Sioux hold on to a 3-2 win.

"First sweep over Ohio State in Columbus," head coach Brian Idalski said. "I am proud of our kids. I thought they played well all weekend."

In what was playoff-like hockey, the Sioux put together its best weekend of the second half. They were led by their special teams that went 5-for-5 on the penalty-kill and 2-for-4 on the power play.

"I thought we put together a whole weekend," Idalski said. "I didn't think there were a lot of major lulls in the game and we were focused and all three lines contributed."

UND improves to 17-8-3 overall and 15-7-2-0 in the WCHA and may possibly secure home ice in the first round of the conference tournament for the first time in program history with a Wisconsin win over Bemidji State tonight.

UND struck first as this weekend's third forward line of Kelsey Ketcher, Sara Dagenais and Stephanie Roy had their best period of the weekend scoring one goal and creating multiple other scoring chances.

"I did," Idalski said about the Dagenais, Loken and Roy line playing well. "I think they did a great job of creating offense for us and at the same time made different contributions for us as well. If you can't contribute up and down the roster it is hard to win especially in hard-fought games like tonight."

The Sioux opened the game outshooting OSU 7-1 through the first five minutes and would finish the period with a 14-10 advantage.

A failed 3-on-1 opportunity for the Sioux led to the first goal for OSU as the Buckeyes turned it the other way and Paige Semenza scored her sixth goal of the season on an odd-man rush at 5:16 of the second period.

The Sioux answered OSU goals quickly yesterday and did so again to regain the lead only 2:11 later as Slavin found the back of the net on a slapshot from the near face-off circle. It was UND's first power-play goal of the weekend with assists going to the Lamoureux twins.

Kim Theut would even the game at 17:34 of middle frame sending the game into the second intermission tied 2-2 as she sent a wrist shot past Stephanie Ney (100 Mile House, British Columbia) who never saw the shot. Ney would finish the game with 30 saves in the game improving to 13-3-2 on the year.

The Sioux would quickly regain the lead in the third period as Roy would slam home a rebound for UND's second power-play goal of the game off a shot by Slavin. Lamoureux-Kolls would pick up the secondary assist.

Only 26 seconds later UND thought they built on the lead but referees reviewed the goal and said the puck never crossed the line.

OSU would pull their netminder with 50 seconds remaining but the Sioux would hold on for the win.